


In the Eye of the Beholder

by hopeassassin



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Besotted Daiki, Character Study, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Pointless yet Fluffy Piece, Self-conscious Satsuki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 00:38:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13259949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeassassin/pseuds/hopeassassin
Summary: “You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”“Zoning out?” Daiki prompted, laughter and ridicule bubbling in his tone.“No,” Satsuki shot back flatly. “Looking at me like… that.”This seemed to grab his attention. So he wasn’t doing it on purpose, she deduced. It seemed to be the first time he was made aware of the fact himself.“Oh yeah? Like what?” he queried, curiously.





	In the Eye of the Beholder

**Author's Note:**

> _So_. I was listening to [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PvBc2TOpE4). And like any self-respecting muse, mine decided to assault me viciously in response to it, right before I had to leave for an exam. 
> 
> I’m not entirely sure wtf happened with this–it transformed a lot from the initial idea. It’s kind of short and pointless, but it’s an appreciation fic of sorts. It’s an attempt to get my writing juices flowing, so forgive it if it’s not up to par. :>

There was the slightest possibility that she was just imagining it, but nowadays Satsuki could almost swear that Dai-chan was… different.

She’d known him her whole life. She’d been with him through thick and thin. And, admittedly, despite their entire, lengthy acquaintance, they were still only teenagers. It was their  _job_ to change, to be different. They were practically growing with every hour of every day.

That’s not the kind of different she meant.

Yes, she had been there when he’d first started changing—back in Teikou.

By the time they were in high school, the Dai-chan she used to know was nowhere to be found. He no longer laughed, no longer joked around light-heartedly with the other boys. His boundless energy had withered away into apathy instead. He no longer bonded with others, building walls of arrogance and bitterness around himself, trying to cope in rather unhealthy ways with the things he couldn’t handle.

But ever since he allowed in his mind for the fact that maybe,  _maybe_ , not all hope was lost—since he started allowing himself to be  _him_ again, things had finally started falling into place.

Since then a year had passed, and a lot of things had transpired.

Imayoshi-san and the other third-years had graduated. Touou didn’t feel the same without them to Satsuki, quite honestly. They now had first-years on the team, people who looked up to them with reverence and admiration. People who relied on them like some sort of deities.

Since then, Satsuki had also graduated herself: from her puppy love for Tetsu-kun. She had realized that there was someone a lot better for her much closer.

But that’s a tale for another time.

The point Satsuki was trying to make was that nowadays, it felt to her like Daiki was somehow… calmer? Perhaps that was not the right word. He was still a typhoon on the court.

Mellower, maybe? No, still not quite right. Because when he played, it felt like his intensity from before had doubled or tripled.

There was… a kinder look in his eyes these days.

Of course, not when he was confronting Wakamatsu-senpai, their captain. Nor when he was having a shouting match with his mom about having spent his allowance in the very beginning of the week, for basketball goods again.

No—she saw it in those rare occurrences during class when he was present, but spacing out the window.

She could see it in his face when they were doing something mundane together—like going home from the convenience store, carrying the heavy bags their moms had asked them to bring.

She saw it in his eyes when he thought she wasn’t looking.

He would be looking at her, silently, secretly, out of the corner of his eye. He’d be looking at her wordlessly, with a quiet, smouldering intensity she could feel just beneath her skin. He’d be looking at her, and then he’d shift his gaze away, the smallest, calmest of smiles stretching his lips as he did so.

On the rare occasions she met his eye when he did it, she’d end up feeling a whole flock of butterflies fluttering in her stomach when encountered with the full weight of his gaze.

She’d end up a stumbling over her words gracelessly as she asked what was up. And instead of feeling repentant for… for…—whatever this was!—Dai-chan would only smile in that absolutely incapacitating way and shake his head, claiming there was nothing. He’d continue doing what he was doing before, pretending nothing particularly important happened.

After they started going out, there was very, very little that changed in their relationship. It made her realize just how close they’d been the entire time.

And yet, despite the fact that everything was supposed to be pretty much the same, the simplest things he did turned out to affect her a lot more than she would’ve accounted for.

For example, that expression on his face. When there was no one else around, or when she was the only one looking, that expression filled with tenderness would steal across his face, filling his whole countenance with calm and soothing.

Or when he was watching her do the most mundane things. Like blow-drying her hair in his living room while he watched some boring TV show. Or when she was painting her nails. Or when she was pouring over the data she analysed.

He’d stand next to her, doing something else, evidently growing progressively bored with it. Then he’d turn his attention to her briefly, and momentarily his whole aura would change.

Dai-chan was still Dai-chan, even after he stopped beating himself down. His gaze was still a bit too edgy, his brows almost always narrowed. His grins were a bit too feral, and his voice still a bit too biting. His laugh was still more of a bark, his sense of humour still a little twisted.

So in the moments when he was being like this—this kinder version of him—it usually caught her unawares.

* * *

She went up to the roof to find him halfway through lunch break. He spent a lot less of his time skipping classes, but that didn’t mean he attended them all without her unrelenting insistence.

So, being the responsible person in that bond, Satsuki set out to find him in the places she knew to look.

Find him she did, of course. Because where else would he be on a fine late July noon other than on the school roof, lounging around like a cat, falling asleep under the blaze of the sun just like one?

And yet she couldn’t bring herself to wake him up once she reached him. Plus, the truth was the day was quite beautiful, and she did have her clipboard with her. No one said that she absolutely  _had_ to do her data analysis within the confines of a building, right?

This was why several minutes later Daiki woke up on his own, to the presence of the overly focused Satsuki scribbling something in her pad.

He stretched with a yawn, pulling himself up to a sitting position. She spared him only a single glance with a brief smile before turning back to her data.

“What are you doing here? What time is it?” Daiki asked, his eyes bleary and his voice scratchy with sleep. Satsuki laughed.

“Can’t I enjoy some time under the sun as well? It’s still lunch break, anyway. No one can stop me.” She scoffed. “At least not any more than they can seem to stop  _you_.”

It took him a moment to wrap his mind around the words, but when he did eventually, he chuckled.

“Why didn’t you wake me, if you were here the entire time?” There was no scorn, nor annoyance in his query. He truly was simply curious. After all, he saw no point in her joining him only to let him sleep that time away.

She shrugged with one shoulder, eyes never straying from the clipboard.

“Why should I? You seemed to be so fast asleep, it would’ve been cruel to wake you.” She smirked coyly, throwing him a pointed look out of the corner of her eye. “Besides, I can work here on my data just fine. It’s a nice day, so why not enjoy it. Right?”

She continued her scratching on the paper with her pen, completely disregarding him while he rested his back against the wall of the exit behind them.

She was focusing so hard on her things that her brow was crinkling with the concentration. Her lips were set in her thoughtful pout she reserved for when she was onto something in her analysis. When the frequency of the movement of the writing utensil on the paper intensified, Daiki knew she had worked her way out of whatever it was. If those weren’t proof enough, the accomplished expression that flitted across her face would be a tell-tale clue.

Watching her do her beloved work with such extreme devotion made Daiki smile, unbeknownst to himself. And this amazing girl—a force to be reckoned with—hadn’t had the heart to wake him up when she’d seen him sleeping so soundly.

It made something in him overflow with emotion he couldn’t pinpoint—because just last year she was so perpetually miffed with his truant tendencies it didn’t matter to her if he was tired, if he maybe didn’t have enough sleep the previous night and needed the nap or not: she would’ve woken him any time, any day, and been immensely pleased with herself.

And now this same girl couldn’t bring herself to stir him.

She was a real masterpiece, this girl of his.

It took Satsuki some time to notice that he was staring at her, but when she did, she lifted her gaze from the pad to be met with that same expression on his face she couldn’t quite place.

Her heart jumped in her throat and she suddenly felt a nervous trepidation that was atypical of her bond with the person holding her gaze prisoner.

“W-what is it?” she asked shakily, clearing her throat to rid herself of the graceless nervousness. “Something on my face?”

And there it was. That same smile—so genuine, so  _pure_ , so… so  _Dai-chan_ , but  _more_ , too. Overflowing with kindness, tenderness and calm. It bloomed slowly on his lips while he shook his head, looking away.

“No, I was just zoning out.”

Satsuki scrutinized him for a while longer, that secretive smile still twisting his mouth in the most heart-warming curl she’d ever seen. She willed her voice steady and herself cool before she pursued the matter.

“You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

“Zoning out?” Daiki prompted, laughter and ridicule bubbling in his tone.

“No,” Satsuki shot back flatly. “Looking at me like… that.”

This seemed to grab his attention. So he wasn’t doing it on purpose, she deduced. It seemed to be the first time he was made aware of the fact himself.

“Oh yeah? Like what?” he queried, curiously.

“Like…” She struggled briefly, searching for the most accurate description. “Like I’m the most amazing thing there is, or something.”

It came out of her mouth before she could consider how it sounded. It was something she said right off the top of her head, after she had struggled with placing his enigmatic looks for a while.

And once she’d phrased it—his brows rising in wonder in response to her words—she realized just how perfect a description it seemed to be. She also blushed a shade of pink that put her hair colour to shame, because the implications of her statement were too embarrassing.

Dai-chan took his sweet time wrapping his mind around her claim, and that felt even worse. But when instead of refuting her, he simply smiled in that way again, her heart started truly slamming hard enough against her ribcage to escape.

He didn’t reply. He hummed in the back of his throat, keeping his gaze pinned to hers—and she was already drowning in the ocean of adoration she could see in his azure orbs.

His hand was cupping her face, thumb gently brushing against her cheek when he slowly leaned in.

And if she thought the expression on his face was overwhelming with its lovingness, the kiss he gave her in that moment was indescribable with the feelings it instilled her with.

Their romance was nothing if not intense and borderline tempestuous, usually. But this was a whole another depth of their still changing bond she hadn’t even accounted on being met with.

If she’d had to place the look on Daiki’s face, she would’ve definitely used words like quiet, mellow, maybe even washed out, and others such in the same constellation.

The feelings he poured into the ardent, yet unusually well-reined kiss, were nothing like mellow or washed out. He was in perfect control for once, and the doting way he caressed her as he kissed her conveyed all the words he’d never speak.

When they parted, it was because he’d heard the warning bell chime.

And for once, it was Dai-chan pulling her towards class that day—because she was too distracted, too winded to catch up with reality.

But when they got back to the classroom, and everyone took their place as the lesson started, Satsuki caught Daiki’s reflection in the window, spacing out with a slight smile on his lips again.

She would’ve never dubbed him like the kind of guy who’d get easily sentimental. He was usually so well-grounded it would take a miracle to move him if he didn’t want to be moved.

And yet, here he was, so besotted that he’d randomly end up daydreaming every other day.

The truth was that the way his usually indifferent mask cracked under the weight of the kindness and adoration that filled his whole countenance whenever he looked at her like that made him the most endearing sight she’d ever laid her eyes on.

The truth was that—even though she’d already started dating him because she loved him—she was even more in love with the Dai-chan, who was so in love with her to make such an expression.

The only thing more embarrassing than that realization was having to assure the teacher that there was nothing wrong with her and that she was fine, despite the redness of her cheeks and the barely repressable urge to bury her face in her hands.

**Author's Note:**

> I also felt the need to write a more mellow, less-edgy-than-my-usual Daiki. So, tadah! Thus, the results. :D Hope you liked this rather pointless piece. xD
> 
> I really enjoyed writing this 3 years ago. I hope you will enjoy reading it, even if it is posted here 3 years late. :D


End file.
